Conceptualised by Dentsu Webchutney, the spot features the ‘world’s fastest pianist’ Aman Bathla. He is challenged to play the famous song ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion on a piano made entirely of… More

Along with static images short, concise, informative and fun video content can help you massively increase your reach. Important to remember it’s not just about creating a video, there are millions of videos on YouTube with just tens of views,

Together with great benefits that social media brings, it can also be challenging. Social media can bring negative comments, often with good reason. But how do you tell the difference between a valid negative comment and a troll? When is a comment worth responding to or when is it not?

This infographic is extremely useful in giving you a decision tree for when and if to respond. Beyond this businesses need to look at how feedback from social media can help an organisation by changing business practices and identify opportunities.

A couple of extra things to consider:

Never respond in anger (or after alcohol?). If the comment has annoyed you then maybe write down what you want to say, walk away and come back when you have calmed to see if what you were going to say still stands.

Be the better person. Others will read the comment and your response and you need them to come away thinking that you are being more reasonable.

Remember people don’t necessarily believe overly negative comments, and sometimes will come to your defence when people are unreasonable.

Keep perspective. Many of the worse trolls on Twitter have very few followers and even follow themselves from other accounts to give themselves some following. Even if someone has a few hundred followers the number who will see the post will be tiny – by responding you could be giving a troll a much bigger audience.

Even prior to the EU referendum I had struggled how to deal with some of the people I am connected with on Facebook, who on reflection I would prefer not to be. I spent months, weeks and the last few days seriously considering what to say. Here are my words that I shared publicly on Facebook.

Following the EUref normal Facebook service has been resumed. Where I will continue being anti-racism, pro workers rights, supporting the Labour Party, for equality and full of hope for future generations.

If you don’t like my posts, do us both a favour and do the simple thing and select unfriend. We can return to exchanging cards at special occasions, smiling and doing small talk at social events – it’s what we did before Facebook so why change that.

And if you share ‘Britain First’ posts I will not bother writing to you asking not to post this crap anymore. Family, colleague or friend – I will block you. This is not because I don’t believe in democracy and debate. It’s because there is no debate in hate. You are regurgitating the vomit of some of the most hateful aspects of our society and if anything the EU ref taught me it is we need to stand up to and expose these views and those who hold them louder than we have ever done before. We need to call hate – hate, a racist – racist, a sexist – sexist… Guessing you get the trend. Otherwise we allow these views to grow again with far more dangerous consequences.

If you don’t understand my view, you don’t understand me – so go on, go on – do us both a favour. For all those that do, thank you for your friendship even though we may often disagree – as a great woman said – we have more in common than that which divides us xxx

Frienxit is the sudden rise of ‘unfriending’ ‘unfollowing’ ‘muting’ or even ‘blocking’ people on social media sites, after people respond to alternative views.

During the EU referendum debate, millions have taken to social networks to share their views like never before – but it seems not everyone wants to hear them.

And now prior to the outcome on Britain possibly exiting the EU – many are exiting their digital relationships. It comes as people discover that their online friends, maybe are not the sort of people they’d like to spend time with – even if it’s only virtual time.

But why now? Well when many of us first ventured onto social media there was great enthusiasm to connect with people we know. These are people we may not have stayed friends with in the real world.

This has also been a very different debate from normal elections. People are not hiding behind party banners but ‘coming out of the closet’ on some of their more extreme political views.

Maybe because of fear of the online abuse we have seen politicians face, many are choosing to Frienxit these relationships as an easier option to tackling these views head on.

Initial responses to my Twitter poll shows a majority say they are not backing Frienxit, but a lot have. But the most important question of all (other than the
EUref result) – have you been Frienxited?

The idea of sharing other people’s content may still be alien to some marketers. Like it or not, it is an essential part of making sure your social media feed is followable and shareable. This is especially the case if you don’t have a regular stream of engaging content of your own.

I have used the 80/20 rule for sharing: 80% other people’s content and 20% of your own. Though if you don’t have a great deal of content I would go further. I would look at as high as 95% of others people’s content.

Why would you do this? On social media, you need to demonstrate that you are a trusted source of interesting content. You will then gain followers and they will look out for your posts. When you post your own content, as a trusted voice, they are more likely to click on and view your own content.

This does not replace the need for developing your own content. Marketers recognise whilst content curation is important, posting your own is not far behind.

Words are not enough. A weird way to start a blog – but in the battle for attention images are everything.

Video, infographics, photography and animation are key to capturing your audience’s attention. In social streams, you are competing against a whole range of exciting messages. To fight for attention you need to stand out in those streams. This is where these visual tools can come to your rescue.

This infographic lays out some of the ways content marketing can help your business.

Sites that use content marketing via blogs get more pages indexed on search engines. This means potential customers are more likely to find their site.

Word of mouth plays a big part in how people decide where to buy. Many of these conversations are taking place on social media. To build a following you need interesting content which is a top 3 reason people give for why they follow.

Once you build your following 6 in 10 social users are more likely to recommend you.

Your customers don’t want to come to your website. Yes, I know in creating it you have spent huge amounts of time, money, sweat and tears. But in an online world dominated by social media and apps, there are far more exciting places to be.

Another huge problem you face is a lot of people don’t trust company websites. They look at your content and think ‘well you would say that’. Especially if you make bold claims that you don’t substantiate.

Whilst the company website is not dead, yet, it is not enough. I would even question if it is your first priority. Your customers often look first to social media to help them choose what to buy, and who to buy from. Go to your customer, don’t wait for them to come to you.

And it’s only going to get tougher. With the growth of mobile and apps, customers want easier and simpler ways to get what they want. And they don’t want to trawl through your website to find it.

In short. Your company website is just one small part of your online real estate. It will shrink in importance and you need to now – before it’s too late – focus on your social presence. And if you haven’t already, work out how you can help meet your customer’s needs on mobile phones with an app.

The need for corporate websites will continue to reduce. I would argue for some there is little or no need now. New companies will choose not to create company websites and exist only on social and in apps. Benefiting by focusing their energy where their customers are, where their customers trust. Where their customers want to be.